Everything’s looking Rosey at the circus

Working in the ticket office, dreaming of being on stage and getting asked to perform at the 11th hour.

It was literally overnight they said ‘Rosey, can you step in as the knife throwers assistant?’ and then I was doing it!

But that’s exactly what happened to Rosey Delarue when working part time at the Zippo’s Circus box office. “It was a bit nuts,” she told The Gazette.

“It was literally overnight they said ‘Rosey, can you step in as the knife throwers assistant?’ and then I was doing it!

“It was really scary but I didn’t have time to be scared because it happened so quickly and I’d seen Toni (the knife thrower) do the act a lot of times and he’s so great.”

Rosey has always dreamed of performing but her original training was in musical theatre. It was only when she went to a circus school, ran by Zippo’s, to “learn something new”, that her career aspirations started to change.

As well as having the unenviable task of standing by a board while her colleague Toni throws knives frighteningly close to her, she now does some aerial sequences in the show.

She added: “They’ve given me some more roles.

“I do a bit of aerial silks at the beginning and some aerial hoops during one of the other acts. So there’s stuff going on on the floor and stuff going on in the air as well.”

Despite being the new kid on the block this year, so to speak, Rosey admits that the circus is like a big family and everybody has made her feel welcome.

She said: “I feel incredibly lucky to be working on this show and it’s very exciting.

“I look at the people I’m working with and the show is so brilliant and everyone is so incredibly talent and I just feel so lucky that I’ve had the break to work on such an incredible show.

“Everyone’s so brilliant, it’s such a good community. Because I’m the newbie this year, everyone’s so nice and gets on really well and everyone loves to teach you. I couldn’t ask for more really.”

And if you’re still in doubt about whether or not you should come, Rosey has the answer.“You will not be disappointed,” she added.

“I still watch the acts and I’m amazed. It’s for everyone, you’ll laugh, you’ll be scared. You shouldn’t miss it.”

Cirque Berserk is at Blackpool Opera House between Wednesday and Sunday.